In a recent  post I showed some of the research behind barefoot running and the effects  of what Vibram Five Fingers would have on the foot during running. This week,  Rick, one of my amazing clients, became the first to volunteer to participate in  my attempt at scientific research and run on a treadmill while being video taped  wearing both his normal runners and a pair of his Vibrams to see what would  happen with his foot motion. Admittedly, this is just one participant and should  not be construed as valid scientific literature, but hey, you have to start  somewhere, and no better place than with a case study!!! Hells Yeah,  baby!!!!!

So here’s the design: Rick ran for three minutes in both the regular shoes  and the Vibrams for 2 consecutive times and an average of foot pronation in both  feet was determined using a digital video analysis software package to measure  joint angles in a frame-by-frame setting. Pretty cool, huh?? You want to make  out with me now, don’t you?? No? Well, I guess that’s cool. **Insert awkward  pause** …….So….how ’bout them Oilers?

Rick ran on a treadmill at a self-selected pace of 6.5 miles per hour in both  types of shoes, and his heart rate didn’t change between the two (average of 174  in each footwear), suggesting there was minimal benefit to either footwear on  his cardiopulmonary load (the shoes won’t make you run faster or make it easier  on your O2 carrying capacity to do work).

See a difference? Check this out. When wearing the shoes, he pronated an  average of 15 degrees on his left foot and 14 degrees on his right, where in the  Vibrams he pronated 19 degrees on his left and 20 degrees on his right  (difference of 4 and 6 degrees respectively). The best part was when I measured  the angular acceleration, or how fast his foot moved into pronation. While in  shoes his right foot pronated at 120 degrees per second and his left at 70  degrees per second, where the Vibrams produced accelerations of 240 degrees per  second on the left and 255 degrees per second n the right (an increase of more  triple for the left foot and more than double for the right!!!). what this means  is that the foot is being snapped into pronation much faster while wearing the  Vibrams than in normal shoes, and this can actually lead to kinetic chain  injuries through the foot, ankle, knee, hip and low back!!!!

When I looked at his view from the side, he showed he consciously changed his  run style when wearing the Vibrams. In shoes, his foot strike was with a shin  angle of 22 degrees ahead of vertical, and had a foot takeoff angle of 47  degrees (total leg angle of 69 degrees. Get your head out of the gutter!!). When  he wore the Vibrams, he had a foot strike of a shin angle of 20 degrees ahead of  vertical and a takeoff of 50 degrees (total leg angle of 70 degrees). The toe  angle with shoes was also 32 degrees in shoes and 27 degrees in Vibrams. The leg  angle was pretty similar, but the change in run stride technique was noticeable,  and he said he felt like he

This change in run  stride is consistent with the majority of the literature saying that people tend  to run further up on their feet towards the ball of their foot, which adds more  pressure to the plantar fascia and spring ligament of the foot, and creates a Muscle Imbalance of the foot.

So overall, I would not recommend the Vibrams for Rick to run in, as the  footwear doesn’t protect him against the hard pronation and excessive ankle  movement observed during the run. If he were to continue running in these shoes,  he would probably wind up getting some sort of repetitive strain injury or  stress fracture to his lower kinetic chain, it would just be a matter of where  and how bad.

Please keep in mind this is just ONE person running on a treadmill, and isn’t  saying Vibrams are bad for everyone. Each foot is different, and each run stride  is different, so finding the footwear that’s appropriate for your foot is the  biggest bang for your buck when finding footwear to run in. I do this with every  one of my running clients and try to adjust their run technique as much as  possible to get them running efficiently and fast with minimal strain on their  bodies. To date, I haven’t had a single runner get any type of repetitive strain  injury from following my recommendations, and I have some serious marathoners  running some pretty ridiculously fast times, as well as beginners looking to hit  personal bests. When I look at a foot hitting the ground in super slow motion,  it becomes pretty clear whether it’s a good foot contact or not, and then we  just make some adjustments to make it better. Pretty simple, right? Yeah, now  you want to make out with me, don’t you?? No? Huh.  ***Looks at floor and  shuffles feet nervously*** …..So, yeah.

There was a book released a few years ago that extolled the benefits of running barefoot over  running in conventional shoes saying it would reduce injuries and lead to a  better run stride. What very few people are looking at the actual mechanics of  the runners stride itself, which will contribute waaaaay more to running  injuries than the shoe itself. That’s like taking someone who has a wicked hard  slice on the golf course and expecting the new set of carbon fiber clubs to  “sort out their swing” for them with absolutely no lessons on swing mechanics.  Get me a set of those clubs and I’ll hit it like Tiger Woods circa 2007 (now I’m  more like Tiger Woods circa late 2049).

Of course, the rationale being that one of the world record holders is able  to run barefoot lends itself to the idea that everyone should be able to run  barefoot. This is like saying everyone should be able to dunk a basketball  because someone else can, or everyone should be able to throw a 90 mph fastball,  or even run a marathon in the first place. Sounds kind of silly, doesn’t it?  Again, every foot is different, and just because one or two people have  success in them doesn’t mean you will.

I am all for Vibrams in a weight room, and find that wearing them gives me a  better sense of balance and power development when performing heavy weight  lifting, balancing or plyometric activities, but I think this is where  their  versatility ends. We are always surrounded by claims and suggestions that the  newest product is the greatest thing since sliced bread…

was hitting the ground a lot harder in the Vibrams,  and that was pretty uncomfortable during the run.